The use of PVD deposition technology for the processing of substrates in a vacuum treatment system is widely known. In such a system designed for magnetron sputter deposition it is known to arrange a magnet system behind a sputtering target to define a magnetic tunnel located on a surface of a target material, the sputtering surface, the tunnel confining the plasma during operation. Over the target's lifetime the erosion of the target caused by magnetron sputtering results in the formation of a so called racetrack, a trench in the target material. If the trench has consumed the thickness of the target, the target needs to be exchanged; this also defines for the target-lifetime.
In order to allow for better exploitation of the target material as well as improving the deposition homogeneity on the substrate it is known to move the magnet system during operation of the deposition process. This can be realised mechanically (rotating, shifting the magnet system in part or as a whole) or electrically by using coils modulating the location and/or strength of the magnetic field.
Several concepts have been proposed to achieve erosion-uniformity of the target over target life in rotating magnetron sputtering systems, these include concepts with
lateral magnet movement like in U.S. Pat. No. 6,821,397 B2, WO0163643A1, U.S. Ser. No. 05/171,415_A, U.S. Ser. No. 05/833,815_A, US_20040050690_A1 and others, as well as concepts with axial magnet movement, like in DE_03908252_A1, EP_00945524_A1 and EP_01908090_B1.